2020-2021 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: The God's Eye (Lancaster's Luck #3)

The God's Eye (Lancaster's Luck #3) by Anna Butler

Excellent! I hadn't read the first two in this series, but Ms Butler's skillful writing answered any questions I may have had about the characters and setting. Steam punk fiction isn't always convincing, but the author's alternate world building is spot on and the two leads are men you want to meet and join in their adventure. Just as in the Gyrfalcon series where I fell in love with Bennet and Flynn, so I did with Rafe and Ned. The secondary characters are strong and believable and the romance is just enough to satisfy. Highly recommended.

https://amzn.to/3bdsBgu

2020-2021 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Invisible, as Music

Invisible, as Music by Caren J. Werlinger

This warm and gentle love story doesn’t have a lot of plot: sort-of-but-not-quite friends to lovers. The setting in upstate New York, I wish she had devoted just a little more time to describing. I love the finger lakes, but she never really made me feel like I was there. I had to fill in too much with my own imagination. But the characters were just about perfect. Lives full of delights and obstacles, interests and frustrations. I felt like I was reading about neighbors I could walk down the street and have coffee with. Her writing style flowed like water in a lazy river. Not destructive, not spectacular like a waterfall, but pleasant, like the water in a river that you canoe in on a summer afternoon. It’s an unusual love story, and deeply satisfying.

https://amzn.to/3Cl7vbO

2020-2021 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Hold the Door (An Open Doors Novel)

Hold the Door (An Open Doors Novel) by Vinni George

A drunk kiss at a college party between friends leads to a break in their friendship and fifteen years of separation when one gets cold feet and the other is afraid to speak his mind. Then the two men—Sam and Max—end up having to work together at the same company due to a merger. One tries to apologize, the other tries to run away. There's a lot of buildup at the start of the story between the inebriated mess of a kiss and when the MCs meet again after so many years. The author did a great job with building tension. In fact, everything about this book feels natural. The writing flows well and the plot moves along swiftly. There's some internal ponderings and surf stuff that can be skipped, if necessary, without losing the story thread. Overall, the dialogue feels real and is smooth and casual. All in all, this was my kind of story. The plot wasn't too convoluted, the characters made me feel things (both good and bad), the story flowed well, the sex was hot, and the happy-ever-after never hurts. Recommended. I'm gonna be checking out the other books in the series too, that's for sure.

https://amzn.to/3vInZbz